Thomas B Sommerkamp

Thomas Buckley “Buck” Sommerkamp, 55, passed away on Sunday, January 31, 2021, after winning a battle with cancer by showing the disease what bravery, determination, and integrity look like. Buck was born Labor Day, September 6th, 1965, at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, but grew up in the Green Acres subdivision of Warrensburg. Yes, really, Green Acres. The place to be! He also spent summers at his grandmother’s in Caruthersville, where he would dance and listen to records with cousins Lissa and Andrea in the attic where they also played on one of those fat jiggling machines. He listed those days as being the most special of his childhood.

Early on, Buck showed an insatiable curiosity and aptitude for technology that never left him. He would go around the neighborhood asking friends if they had anything that needed to be fixed so that he could dismantle and try to reassemble it for them. Parents went so far as to warn their kids to stop giving him electronics. This naturally lead to his love for radio, including KTRS, a “station” that he and childhood friend Karen Dixon “created” to spin Top 40 songs like his idol, Casey Kasem. His dream was to be a DJ, which he achieved at the age of 13, not a typo, 13, by obtaining a professional broadcasting license. He was on air at KOKO and KCMW in Warrensburg, and eventually did a weekend gig at KLSI in Kansas City under the moniker “Tom Summers.”

In 1976, at the age of 10, Buck won a contest for composing “Bicentennial Boogie” for piano with the help of his mom, Patty, and his music teacher. He performed it at the State Capitol. A lover of the outdoors and scouting, he achieved Eagle status in the tribe of Mic-O-Say. To no one's surprise, he was involved in many diverse high school activities including theater, Junior Achievement, MYF, FCA, and tennis. He came in First at State two years running in radio speaking. Buck next achieved a degree in Communications from Central Missouri State University. A lifelong lover of learning, he was currently working toward his Masters at KU, garnering straight A’s with only his thesis remaining at the time of his death.

Besides DJ, Buck's career path included county dispatcher, writer for a cable company, salesman at Cicero Graphic Resources, IT manager at both Sosland Publishing and Butler Manufacturing, and video auteur for his husband’s company, Alias Creative Group. In 2014, he landed his dream job at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City as a Lead User Experience Researcher. Two of his many accomplishments at the Bank that he was proud of: receiving an “Exceeds Expectations” citation as part of his job review and being instrumental in the Bank’s receiving a score of 100 on the 2021 Corporate Equality Index of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.

After college, Buck was married to Stephanie Jaggars and the couple moved to Lee’s Summit. They divorced after 21 years, but not before becoming parents to Buck’s proudest accomplishments, his two sons “Lex” and “Rew” in 1991 and 1995, respectively.

On Valentine’s Day, 2009, Buck received an online “Howdy!” from John Yuelkenbeck that would begin a new chapter in his life as the two of them became inseparable. Buck moved to Westport and they were married in 2014 (visit buckandjohn.com for the full experience). The internet nearly ran out of space attempting to chronicle their travels and adventures. They considered themselves the luckiest guys in the world and the only regret they had was that not everyone enjoys a relationship like theirs. One of the last things he said to John was, “we kicked the world’s ass, honey!"

Unless “rainbow” counts, Buck’s favorite color was purple, perfectly signifying his passion for life. His favorite thing was to connect like-minded people and many of his conversations started with “You should meet . . .” His positivity in everything was boundless.

Buck was preceded in death by his grandparents; beloved Wheaten Terrier, Casey; and cats Bill and Julius. He is survived by his loving husband, John Yuelkenbeck, and cats Shadoe and Ethel, of the home; charming mother, Patty Sommerkamp, of Warrensburg; proud father, Thomas Sommerkamp, USMC (Kathy), also of Warrensburg; devoted sister Meg Brigman (Dan) of Knob Noster; half-sisters Sarah, Jessica, and Kim Sommerkamp; step-siblings Ben Cook (Christine); Becky Jones (Steve); and Matthew Cook (Jessica), sons John Alexander Sommerkamp and Stephen Andrew Sommerkamp; honorary “sister” Heather Strickland, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, in-laws, and countless friends and co-workers who all loved and admired him.

Because of Covid restrictions, there will be a private visitation during which a slideshow will be live streamed at 1:00 Saturday, February 6, followed by a service at 2:00 which will also be live streamed through the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/McGilley-Memorial-Chapel-Midtown-144117192311839 or McGilley Memorial Chapel-Midtown (mcgilleymidtownchapel.com). There are many charitable organizations Buck was involved in, but he designated a few for those wishing to make donations: KyMel (kymel.org), a summer camp for children with cancer; the Prostate Network (prostatenetwork.org), which he produced podcasts for, the Reformation Project (reformationproject.org), dedicated to advancing inclusion in the church; and the Kansas City Center for Inclusion (inclusivekc.org), of which he is a former board member.